COURTS: A filing challenges man who recanted testimony that L.A. police had a role in the slaying of Notorious B.I.G.

By Ciaran McEvoy

City News Service

Lawyers for the family of slain rap music star Christopher Wallace, better known as Notorious B.I.G., claimed in court papers filed Monday that a prison inmate lied under oath when he recanted his statement accusing the LAPD of involvement in Wallace’s killing.

In a motion filed in federal court in downtown Los Angeles, attorneys for Wallace’s estate said former R&B singer and convicted murderer Waymond “Suave” Anderson also clearly lied when he accused Wallace’s family, its lead attorney and several others of witness-tampering in connection with their wrongful death lawsuit against the city.

Wallace was shot to death in a GMC Suburban parked near the Petersen Automotive Museum on March 9, 1997. His killing remains unsolved.

According to Wallace estate attorney Perry Sanders, the 40-year-old Anderson, who previously claimed rogue LAPD officers were involved in the rapper’s killing, said in an Aug. 20 deposition that he was promised part of any settlement against the city in exchange for testimony that implicated disgraced officers Rafael Perez and David Mack and Death Row Records CEO Marion “Suge” Knight in Wallace’s murder.

All three men have denied any involvement in Wallace’s death.

Both Perez and Mack were central figures in the LAPD’s Rampart division corruption scandal, and both have left the LAPD. Mack is currently imprisoned for bank robbery.

In the motion, the Wallace estate asks for access to Anderson’s phone and prison-visitation records for the past 10 years in an effort to find out who or what was behind his recanting, according to the statement.

Attorneys for the Wallace estate also said they had proof of Anderson’s lies because the Wallace family hadn’t even hired a lawyer at the time Anderson says he was approached by estate officials to fabricate his story about the LAPD and Wallace.